ABSTRACT
Reducing Salmonella on finished carcasses requires a comprehensive, multihurdle approach. ’e point of biomapping is that if the plant is tuned correctly, the plant will always keep Salmonella levels below the performance standard, regardless of the incoming load on chickens. No individual procedure or step is adequate to accomplish this task (i.e., there is no silver bullet). ’e USDA stated that
“intervention strategies aimed at reducing fecal contamination and other sources of Salmonella on raw product should be effective against other pathogens” (USDA, 1996). ’is statement is misleading in that reducing fecal contamination has not been sufficient to reduce Salmonella prevalence. Reducing fecal contamination may be effective for reducing the number of Salmonella on each carcass; however, only one Salmonella cell is required on a carcass to produce a “positive” result. ’us, unless all Salmonella are eliminated, the carcass will remain positive (Russell, 2007).
